


Eggshells

by Ysabetwordsmith



Series: Love Is For Children [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: #coulsonlives, Age Play, Aromantic, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Asexuality, Comfort Reading, Crafts, Current Environment Is Safe, Cute, Daddy Issues, Domestic, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ethnic Traditions, Families of Choice, Family, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Holidays, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, Issues, Making up for lost time, Man Out of Time, No Sex, Nonsexual Ageplay, Past Abuse, Personal Growth, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Teambuilding, Tony Stark Has Issues, Traditions, flangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-22
Packaged: 2017-12-08 19:09:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysabetwordsmith/pseuds/Ysabetwordsmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers celebrate Easter together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Walking on Eggshells

**Author's Note:**

> This story follows "[Love Is for Children](http://archiveofourown.org/works/684731)." Next in sequence is "[Dolls and Guys](http://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/9184702.html)."
> 
>  **Regarding feedback:** While it's not necessary to comment on every post I make, remember that I don't know who reads/likes things if nobody says anything. Particularly on long stories, I've discovered that I get antsy if there's nothing but crickets chirping for several posts. So it helps to give me feedback at least once, even if it's just "I like this" or "This one doesn't grab me." If you're on the first or last episode of a multi-part piece, that's a particularly good place to say something.

The Avengers sat in the common room together, watching television. It wasn't game night, but they spent more and more of their off-duty time together these days. Phil enjoyed this sign of the deepening bonds of team and family. Currently Phil sat on the couch between Steve and Tony. Phil preferred to keep a close eye on Steve in case it became necessary to change the channel. Clint and Natasha cuddled together on the loveseat. Bruce curled up in a chair. Tony channel-surfed idly, looking for something interesting.

"Okay, I'm lost," Steve said, frowning at the screen. "What's with all the funny colors?"

"They're Easter eggs. You must've seen those when you were growing up, didn't you?" Clint said.

"Yeah, but those are ... what did you call them? Day-glow colors?" Steve said.

"They're dyed," Phil pointed out.

"With _what?"_ Steve said. "The last time I saw colors that crazy, Howard misappropriated some tracer dye and painted a bunch of dummy grenades and hid them in the -- um. Nevermind." He broke off, looking at Tony.

Tony was staring down at the remote control in his hands. He turned it over, fiddled with the back, turned it right side up again. "My father never did anything like that with me," he said in a tight voice. "He was an atheist. So I didn't get to hunt Easter eggs. He said Easter was just an infantile wish to turn back time and raise the dead, that rational people should know better."

Steve winced, rippling against Phil's side. "I'm sorry, Tony," said Steve. "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories for you. It's just ... Howard was my friend, and now he's gone, and I _miss him_. I try not to talk about him around you, because I know you didn't really get along with your father, but it feels like I'm walking on eggshells. It's really hard."

"It's hard growing up without getting to do stuff all the other kids do, too. I swear if I didn't know better, I'd think you were talking about a totally different man," Tony said. 

"In a way, that's true," Phil said. He needed to defuse the tension between them on this topic, or they'd hurt each other the way they had when they first met. Clearly it wouldn't go away on its own. "Losing someone can break people."

"What do you mean by that?" Steve asked.

Phil thought twice about his options, then decided to bring it out in the open as delicately as possible. "You were on the radio with Howard and Peggy when the plane went down, Steve," Phil said. "They couldn't protect you, but they could and did make certain you didn't go through that _alone_. I've lost agents under very similar circumstances. It's not something everyone can recover from. Peggy did. From the divergence between your description and Tony's, it sounds like Howard _didn't_. In essence, it may be that the man you knew as a friend died that day, shielding you from the worst of the stress."

Steve sniffled, then rubbed both hands over his face, smearing a line of tears across his cheeks. Phil passed him a handkerchief. "Yeah, that fits," Steve said hoarsely. "Now I kinda feel like I got him killed."

"You didn't," Phil said firmly. "Howard made his own decision to cover your back as best he could. You want to blame someone for what happened, blame _HYDRA_."

Tony was frankly staring at both of them. "I never ... I really never thought about it that way," he said. 

Steve and Tony leaned into Phil. He looped an arm around each of them. Phil worried about Tony a little, because Howard Stark was touchy territory there too. Eggshells, indeed. "No reason why you should, Tony," he said quietly. "It's not a perspective most people would think about."

"I should have," Tony said, his voice hitching. "I've seen it. Something like it. Golmira."

Because Yinsen had quite deliberately given his life to buy Tony's freedom, Phil recalled, and that had forged the Merchant of Death into Iron Man. "Even so, Tony, the situation with Steve and Howard wasn't your fault. Don't blame yourself for something that happened before you were born," Phil said.

"I'm not. I'm blaming myself for being a jerk, _now,_ to one of my best friends," Tony said. He turned to Steve. "I'm sorry. You've lost so much, and I don't want to take away yet another thing. Go ahead and remember your friend; that way something of him will survive. I wish -- I wish I could have known the same man you did. At least this way I can hear about him. Just, you know, I may need to tap out if it gets too much for me."

Phil gave Tony an encouraging squeeze. "I'm so proud of you," he murmured.

"Thanks, Tony. That means a lot to me," Steve said. "Let me know if I overdo it." 

"Fair," Tony agreed.


	2. I Missed a Lot of Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers discuss different types of dyes and the feasibility of holding an Easter egg hunt.

Then Steve tilted his head curiously at the viewscreen, his attention snagged by another commercial. "How does that _even work?"_

"I think the marbling effect must come from floating an oil-based dye on the surface of the water in the bowl," Bruce said. "That's how I'd do it, anyway. I don't know for sure. I've never colored Easter eggs. My father didn't care much for kiddie stuff and we tried real hard not to upset him. I missed a lot of things because of him. A couple times somebody arranged an egg hunt for the army brats, but that's the closest I ever got." Then he turned to Steve. "If you didn't use dye, what did you do for Easter eggs?" 

"Oh, we used food scraps -- onion skins would make yellow eggs, and if you saved the pink juice from a jar of pickled eggs, you could put hard-boiled eggs in there to turn them pink. I think that color came from beets," Steve said. "There were more but I don't remember them all. We couldn't afford to do it every year."

"JARVIS, run a search on that," Phil suggested.

"There are several dozen options for natural dyes," JARVIS replied. A hologram appeared with a list and illustrations. Phil and JARVIS had worked out that, if you gave Steve just one familiar thing in a hologram and put it right in front of him, he'd reach for it. Too much stimulation made him shy away, though. Tony's wild dance of room-filling displays still daunted Steve.

Sure enough, Steve pulled the list into his lap. "Oh, I forgot about the red cabbage!" he exclaimed.

"I made litmus paper with that in high school once," Bruce said, leaning forward. "It comes out kind of purple. If you mix in an acid like vinegar, it turns more pink, and with a base like baking soda it turns more blue."

Meanwhile Tony had looked up the ingredients for the marbled egg kit. "Ugh, some of these things are disgusting. JARVIS, make a note: I need to scream at someone in the FDA about this. Bruce and I could do better in the lab downstairs."

"We should color eggs together and do an Easter egg hunt," Clint said abruptly. "I only got to do that once when I was little. Mostly I just watched Barney and -- well, I'd like to do it right. With people who actually care about me." He looked at Natasha then. "What about you?"

"I never had a chance at any of that. I don't mind making eggs to hunt, but I really want to make писанки," she said. "I'd need to be older than I usually am for game nights, though -- maybe twelve? -- because it's done with beeswax and candles and permanent dyes."

"All right," Phil said. "We'll make Easter eggs."

"Should we be wasting food like that?" Bruce said. "It sounds fun, but ..."

"What waste? I love hard-boiled eggs," Steve said.

"Egg salad! Deviled eggs!" Clint said. "Will SHIELD let us, though? I mean, we can color the eggs on Saturday night but Easter is on Sunday ..."

"If they don't give us the holiday, I'll rat them out for unfair labor practices," Tony said. "We dealt with Dr. Doom on New Year's Day when a majority of New York -- including the Fantastic Four -- were too hung over to do anything about him. SHIELD can spare us an Easter brunch unless somebody tries to take over the world again."

Phil smirked at the memory of an obviously queasy Mr. Fantastic slurring insults at Dr. Doom from the Baxter Building. The Avengers really had gone above and beyond the call of duty that day because Dr. Doom wasn't _their_ nemesis. "In fact, the Fantastic Four still owe us a favor for that," Phil said. "I'll make arrangements for them to cover Easter Sunday in case of emergency." He was trying to build enough of a network that nobody had to be on call 24/7, but it proved slow going.

"Can I try the писанки too?" Steve asked, peering at a new hologram that Natasha had passed to him. He actually had one in each hand, going back and forth between them. It was the first time Phil had seen him do that, rather than close the first one to pick up the second. "I liked the traditional Easter eggs, but these look amazing, and the modern dyes are really bright but they seem like fun and, and..." His voice trailed away.

"Of course, Steve," said Phil. "You can try as many as you want. Everyone can. We will buy -- or _make,_ yes Tony, you can stop waving at me now -- several different kinds of coloring so that you can all use whatever appeals to you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Traditional Easter eggs can indeed be colored using food scraps and other dyes.  See "[Vibrant Eggs, Dyed Naturally](http://www.thekitchn.com/vibrant-easter-eggs-dyed-natur-112957)," "[Natural Easter Egg Dyes](http://chemistry.about.com/od/holidayhowtos/a/eastereggdyes.htm)," and  "[Herb-Stenciled Easter Eggs](http://www.adventures-in-cooking.com/2011/04/herb-stenciled-easter-eggs.html)" for instructions.
> 
> The [red cabbage litmus paper](http://kitchenpantryscientist.com/?p=879) is also a real project.
> 
> [Pysanky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pysanka) or писанки are Easter eggs in a style popular throughout much of eastern Europe.


	3. Delicately Swirling Colors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve leads the coloring of traditional Easter eggs. Bruce leads the coloring of marbled ones. Uncle Phil attempts to maintain order overall.

Phil provided play clothes rather than pajamas for the egg coloring exercise, in the interest of having a snug fit and less chance of snagging anything with loose fabric. Tony frowned over his, making Phil wonder if his parents had ever provided anything to romp around in rather than just designer dress-up clothes. Bruce hesitated, as he did whenever given anything brand new. But at least nobody made a fuss. The Avengers assembled in the kitchen, where Phil had already covered the big table with layers of newspaper.

Tony poked curiously at the paper. "How come we even have this stuff in the tower?"

"Because Agent Sitwell likes to read the news on dead trees, and I asked him for last week's leftovers," Phil said. "I know you prefer your news digital, Tony, but it's not much use for craft projects that way." Then he had to snatch a sheet away from Tony. "And don't put it in your mouth!"

_"Peh,"_ Tony said, spitting out a wet corner. "I just wanted to see if the soy ink tasted like beans. It doesn't."

Steve frowned at Tony. "Okay, we're starting with my batch of dyes, because the traditional eggs need to soak for hours," Steve said. "Phil ... try to keep Tony out of trouble."

"I've got him," Phil said, hooking an arm around Tony's waist. For good measure he took hold of Bruce too.

"Now, you can color your eggs plain. You can draw on them with these white crayons, and the drawings will stay white," Steve said, rolling a couple of crayons down the table to Tony and Bruce. "If you want to get fancy, you can put a leaf on your egg and hold it down with pantyhose, or wrap some rubber bands around to make stripes."

Bruce promptly dropped his crayon. "I wanna do a leaf!" he said.

"All right, I'll help you," Phil said. Getting the pantyhose over the egg without letting the leaf slip was tricky even for an adult, let alone the not-quite-four-year-old that Bruce was playing. Phil let Bruce rummage through the bowl of leaves scavenged from their supply of fresh herbs. By the time Bruce made up his mind to use cilantro, Tony had already finished covering his first egg with an Iron Man mask, then passed it to Steve to be dunked in the red dye. Steve and Natka were also doing leaves. Clint gravitated toward the rubber bands instead. Tony copied Clint on his second egg.

As Phil carefully secured the pantyhose over Bruce's leaf-decked egg, Tony fired a rubber band into Clint's hip. Clint squalled and grabbed for Tony. Tony squirmed out of Phil's grasp and fled.

"Cut it out, you two!" Steve said, slamming his hand down on the remaining rubber bands to prevent Clint from obtaining any ammunition. Natka clutched her half-finished egg against her chest. Bruce hunched protectively over his.

Phil managed to catch both Tony and Clint, depositing them in opposite corners of the room. "Now you two _stay there_ until we complete this part of the project," he said firmly. It was a saner form of discipline than they'd gotten as children, which was precisely why Tony craved it. "You know better than to do mean things to each other. I'm dividing the rest of your traditional eggs between Steve, Natka, and Bruce."

"But I didn't even get to finish _one,"_ Clint whined. "Tony started it!"

"And you didn't wait for me to deal with it, you just went after him yourself," Phil said. "So you sit there and think about the importance of letting me handle problems when they come up. That's what I'm here for." He did, however, hand Clint's half-done egg to Natka, who could probably figure out what he meant to do with the network of rubber bands.

"More eggs?" Bruce said when Phil returned.

"Yes, you get to color some extras because Tony and Clint misbehaved," Phil said. Bruce picked up the white crayon and began to cover the new egg in diagrams of serotonin and acetylcholine.

Eventually they finished the traditional batch of eggs. Phil retrieved Tony and Clint from their corners, sternly admonishing them to behave better. Steve sealed all the jars, with the eggs visible as pale shapes through the colored fluid, and placed them in the refrigerator.

"They look like giant eyeballs," Clint said.

"Eww!" said Tony, giggling.

Next they set up the table to do the marbled eggs. Out came the bowls of water for floating the dye. Tony and Bruce had, indeed, managed to devise a completely nontoxic oil-based dye in six different colors that would dry to a smooth gloss.

"It's actually edible," Bruce said. "In fact the yellow one is mostly saffron." He was switching up for this project, taking Steve's place as the ten-year-old, which perforce meant Tony had to do the same because neither of them liked Tony being younger than Bruce. That let Steve switch down to six so that he could relax a little more. Though honestly, a ten-year-old Tony wasn't any less prone to mischief than a four-year-old. Phil kept a wary eye on him.

"So, you pick your colors -- it works best with two -- and drop them on one side of the bowl. Then you _slowly_ sink the egg on the far side, bring it up through the dye, and -- ta da!" Bruce said, demonstrating the technique. A beautiful blue-and-green swirled egg rested in the little copper holder. He transferred it to the drying tray.

Steve tried one and then declared, "I don't like this kind. It's too hard to make it come out like I wanted." 

Phil looked at the murky egg. He wasn't surprised: Steve preferred oil paints or pencils to watercolor, too. He liked precision more than surprises. It was no wonder the marbling effect, with its reliance on artful chaos, didn't appeal to him. "Come here and sit with me," Phil said. "You pick the colors, and I'll dip the eggs." 

"Okay," Steve said, scooting his chair next to Phil.

Phil managed a credible performance, but it was in fact trickier than it looked. Clint seemed content to create various patterns of purple lace on white eggs. He blew across the surface of the bowl to stir the droplets of dye into the desired configuration. Natka tried a couple of different combinations, then copied Clint's technique in red. Tony produced vivid creations of red and yellow, followed by green and purple.

Bruce started out with blue and yellow, delicately swirling them to make green. Then he added drops of red and teased the colors across the surface with a paper towel before dipping the next egg. His mastery over the ever-moving fluids was amazing. By the time he got to the last egg, he had all six dyes in play and created a nearly perfect spiral rainbow over its entire surface.

"Gee whiz," Steve said, staring at the completed egg. "You're a lot better artist than me."

"Only with things that don't behave logically," Bruce said with a diffident shrug. "It's just colors, not pictures. It doesn't look like anything."

"Does too," Clint said. "It looks like the currents in water, or air, only tinted so you can see them.

Phil flicked his gaze back to Clint's mysterious purple-draped eggs. Each one, he suddenly realized, had a clear white spot somewhere. Clint had been illustrating his targets and the way he sensed air currents while aiming his arrows. In that light, the subtle elegance of the designs looked a lot more impressive. Carefully Phil helped Bruce and Tony transfer all the marbled eggs to the refrigerator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Serotonin](http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232248.php) and [acetylcholine](http://www.chemistryexplained.com/A-Ar/Acetylcholine.html) are [neurotransmitters](http://www.highlands.edu/academics/divisions/scipe/biology/faculty/harnden/2121/images/neurotransmitters.jpg).  There is actually a company that makes [silver charm jewelry](http://store.madewithmolecules.com/category/neurotransmitter-jewelry) based on the patterns of these and other biochemicals.


	4. Fire and Permanent Dyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First there is a copious amount of glitter as the "kids" color the dip-dyed eggs. Then Steve and Natka make _pysanky_.

The third project involved a commercial kit that Clint had picked out, featuring bright pastel dyes. This was augmented by Phil's selection of stickers, food-safe glue, and copious amounts of glitter in several shades. The boys switched back to their preferred ages. Natka stayed at twelve, finding it more secure to stick with a single age for the entire game night. She helped Steve and Phil set out the clear plastic cups, fill them with water, and add the vinegar.

Phil distributed the six dye tablets to the "kids." He hesitated over the last one, then handed it to Bruce. "You've been extra good tonight," he said. Clint, Tony, and Bruce were completely mesmerized by the fizzing tablets, peering into the cups as the dye dissolved and darkened the water.

The decoration of the eggs went faster, because they only had to be dunked for a few minutes, and then embellished according to the owner's choice. Phil drew simple designs in glue and sprinkled glitter over them. Then he demonstrated how to thin the glue so that an egg could be dipped and then rolled to acquire a solid coat of glitter.

The boys all adored the bright colors and shiny adornments. Tony plastered stickers everywhere -- fuzzy ones, puffy ones, and metallic ones with laser-drawn holographic pictures. Bruce drew pink glitter hearts on a purple egg, and silver starbursts on a green egg, and something that might have been intended as a water molecule on a blue egg except that the glue for the glitter was nowhere near as precise as the white crayon had been. Clint used his expert hand-eye coordination to surround a single sticker in concentric outlines of glitter to cover the whole egg.

Natka tried the glitter and the stickers once each, then abandoned them in favor of redipping the eggs. She created eerie shades of mauve, peach, and smoky teal. Some of hers even wound up multicolored in bands, after Tony helped her bend the copper wire to hold eggs partly submerged. Phil smiled at this demonstration of unsolicited teamwork.

Soon they finished this batch of eggs. Phil and Steve put them in the little cardboard racks to dry, then set the trays in the refrigerator. Phil turned around to look at his boys, and sighed.

Clint had three different shades of glitter clumped in his hair. Tony had a sticker indelibly attached to his left sneaker, and had somehow managed to seal two of his fingers together with the (fortunately water-soluble) glue meant for adhering the glitter. Bruce had stained most of one hand green and the opposite thumb purple. They were all grinning from ear to ear.

"Last project," Phil declared, after scrubbing the glue off Tony's fingers. "This one involves fire and permanent dyes, so you little imps come down here to the far end of the table with me." He took a firm hold on Tony and Clint. "Bruce, you hold onto Tony's hand." Bruce obeyed. "Now, Steve and Natka are going to make писанки while we watch quietly."

Clint, Tony, and Bruce all went to their knees so they could peer over the tabletop at Steve and Natasha. Steve glanced at Tony and then judiciously adjusted the position of his candle closer to himself. Phil looked at his three boys kneeling on the kitchen tile, then fetched a stack of dishtowels to put under them so they wouldn't wind up with pressure bruises. Plainly they didn't intend to move for a while. Phil returned to his place and took hold of Tony and Clint again.

Steve and Natka started by making tiny holes in raw eggs and carefully blowing out the insides into a bowl. It was a delicate process. Phil knew just how precise Natka could be with her small, deadly fingers. Watching Steve -- who could burst a heavy bag in the gym with his bare hands -- modulate that strength to handle a hollow eggshell without breaking it awoke a whole different kind of awe.

"What're we gonna do with the egg guts?" Bruce asked.

"I can make omelettes!" Tony said.

_"No,"_ Phil said. Aside from the fact that Tony was currently playing a very plausible four-year-old, Phil had heard all about the disastrous omelette scene from JARVIS. "I will make quiche."

"I thought koosh was a kind of ball," Steve said dubiously.

"It is. _Quiche_ is an egg pie. It has cheese, and usually some other filling such as meat and vegetables," Phil said.

"Oh, okay," Steve said. He wasn't a picky eater.

Steve and Natka lit their candles. They scraped beeswax into tiny copper funnels and held them near the flame until the curls of wax liquified. Then they traced designs on the eggs using the melted wax. Those areas would remain white. They dipped the eggs into the lightest color of dye. Back came the funnels tracing wax over colored areas to protect them from the next darker color. Finally they held the eggs close to the flame to melt the wax and rub it away with a tissue, revealing all the colors.

It was a slow, meticulous process. Steve and Natka made one egg for each of the other Avengers, including Phil. Each of them also made an egg for the other, a total of ten eggs. They were exquisitely beautiful. Phil felt certain that Tony could have done an impressive job as well -- he'd seen the man draw computer chips by hand with a minute soldering iron -- but Tony preferred for Phil to keep him away from dangerous things on game nights. It helped him relax. Despite the length of this phase, and the fact that only two people actually decorated eggs, nobody got restless. They just sat and watched the care with which their teammates worked.

At last, Steve and Natka put the eggs to dry inside the fancy oven that had a warm-air fan. Phil helped them clean up the mess. Then he bent Clint over the sink and removed as much glitter as possible. He didn't want Clint shedding the stuff all over the tower. Meanwhile, Bruce started yawning.

"All right, let's go watch _The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town,_ and then it's time for little Avengers to get in bed," Phil declared. He led them all into the common room. They piled onto the couch together instead of spreading out. Soon they fell into a doze as the Easter special played. Phil let them nap. There would be time enough later to get them into their jammies, and then into bed.

Phil smirked a little. He hadn't told them about the rest of the plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A [koosh ball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koosh_ball) is a toy made from rubber strands. [Quiche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiche) is a savory pie with a filling of eggs plus other ingredients such as meat or vegetables. The two words sound similar.
> 
>  _[The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Easter_Bunny_Is_Comin%27_to_Town)_ is a classic children's special.


	5. Run Program: Easter Sunday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers awaken to a non-hostile intruder alert and discover instructions for a fun mission.

Phil finished his task just as the sun came up. He changed into his "World's Mightiest Uncle" t-shirt and pants, then pulled his bathrobe on. Next he settled onto the couch in the common room. "JARVIS, run program Easter Sunday," he said.

The viewscreen divided itself into six sections: one for each of the Avengers, and another for statistics in which the egg timer was already counting down. The "kids" really were adorable. Tony had kicked off the covers and lay curled up in the middle of his enormous bed, his footie-clad toes twitching as he dreamed. Steve was wrapped around his pillow. Bruce had a teddy bear. Clint and Natasha lay tangled with each other.

And they all came scrambling out of bed when the alarm clock went _brrrriiinnnggg!_ Phil chuckled at the commotion.

"Non-hostile intruder alert," JARVIS announced calmly.

"Tony, what the hell?" Clint yelled over the comm. "That's not part of the standard security system! Have we been hacked?"

"Avengers, please turn your attention to your viewscreens," JARVIS instructed. The sixth frame on Phil's display switched to show him what his "kids" saw -- namely, Phil sneaking through the tower dressed as the Easter Bunny. "As you can see, a non-hostile intruder has infiltrated the premises. Your mission is to retrieve all the foreign objects hidden around the tower using the baskets furnished in your rooms. Hazardous areas have been temporarily sealed off as they are not part of this exercise."

"Uh, hiding eggs isn't really sanitary," Bruce said.

"Please note the egg timer in your display. That indicates the safe period for hard-boiled eggs to be outside refrigeration," JARVIS explained. 

"Oh, okay," Bruce said.

Phil gave a quiet sigh of relief. He hadn't been quite certain Bruce would go along with this part. It helped that Bruce found the first egg, because Phil had left the bright green, leaf-patterned shape in his bathroom sink. That should reassure Bruce that Phil had planned the exercise to conclude in a timely manner. The counter for the eggs clicked over to read, _Traditional Eggs Found: 1 of 18_.

This started a minor stampede as the Avengers hustled into action, scanning the tower for more eggs. They were about halfway through the hard-boiled eggs when Clint found something else.

"Hey, this isn't one of the eggs we decorated! It's plastic," Clint said over the comm, accompanied by a rattling sound. "There's something inside it. Uh, should I bring this down to the lab to scan it?"

"All items in this mission may be considered harmless," JARVIS said. "The lab levels are currently off-limits."

Clint popped his egg open and a small object fell out. _Prize Eggs Found: 1 of 5,_ the display read.

"What is it?" Natka asked at the same time Tony said, "What did you get?"

"Some kind of liquid," Clint muttered, then on a brighter note, "Oh! It's bubble soap." He pried the tiny container open, fished out the wand, and blew a cloud of miniature bubbles. "This is possibly the neatest thing I have ever seen."

Then Phil noticed what Tony was doing. "Tony, put the liquid soap back in the bathroom," he said sternly.

"I was just trying to reinvent the slip-n-slide," Tony grumbled.

"Not in the hallway, and not right now. Try to stay focused on the mission. I know you can do it," Phil said. After Howard's inept -- and largely indifferent -- upbringing Tony needed reassurance that he could meet expectations.

Just then, Natka found a different egg. "What is this?" she said. "It's wrapped in pink foil, and it feels _heavy!"_

_Chocolate Eggs Found: 1 of 5,_ said the display.

Tony tossed the soap back into the bathroom and speeded up his search for more eggs. Steve found another of the chocolate eggs, peeled off the lavender foil, then sat down and began eating it immediately. A shrill noise sounded. Tony had found the prize egg with the snake whistle coiled inside. Smiling, Phil got up to make breakfast.

A little time still remained on the egg timer when the "kids" picked up the last of the eggs and trooped into the kitchen. 

Steve's eyes lit up when he saw what breakfast was. "You made biscuits and gravy!" he exclaimed. Phil had thought he'd like that particular meal.

"Found 'em all," Clint announced. Beside him, Natka placed her yellow Easter basket on the table, peach grass spilling out of it.

"Mission incomplete," JARVIS intoned. "There are still foreign objects unrecovered in your search."

"No way!" Clint said, putting his hands on his hips. "We totally searched this whole tower. Unless _somebody_ hid stuff in the no-go zones like they _said_ they wouldn't do."

"There are no such objects in the off-limits areas of the tower," JARVIS said primly, "nor have you looked ... everywhere."

It was Bruce who caught on. "Tony," he said urgently, tugging on Tony's sleeve, _"eastereggs!"_

"Oh, I get it!" Tony said. He dove for the nearest computer, which happened to be part of the coffee machine, which did not stop him from calling up the rest of the tower software from that screen.

The other Avengers scattered again, each heading for a favorite computing station. Except for Steve -- he sat down at the table and stared longingly at breakfast.

"Aren't you going to rejoin the hunt, Steve?" Phil asked gently.

Steve shook his head. "Naw," he said, tucking his chin against his chest. "I'm no good with computers."

"You won't know unless you try," Phil said.

"All right," Steve said. "JARVIS, could you help me --"

_Electronic Eastereggs Found: 1 of 5,_ read the display. A holographic egg appeared in front of Steve and cracked itself open to reveal the password for a new video game that Phil had bought and placed on the tower system.

"What ...?" Steve said. He poked at the egg, clearly baffled.

"Yours was programmed to appear as soon as you asked for help with the computer search," Phil explained.

"Oh," Steve said. His eyes watered a little. Then he caught Phil in a tight hug. "Thanks, Uncle Phil," he said.

Bruce quickly found one of the electronic eastereggs and returned to the breakfast table. Clint and Natka took longer. Meanwhile Phil put some of the hard-boiled eggs into the refrigerator and arranged the remainder for breakfast.

"Why hasn't Tony found one yet?" Steve whispered to Phil.

Phil smirked. "Possibly because his is programmed to move every five minutes if he doesn't find it," he whispered back. "I had to do _something_ to make it challenging for him."

A happy squeal announced that Tony had finally found his easteregg. "That was sneaky," he said to Phil, "but I found your bunny tracks and followed 'em and got the egg."

"Mission complete," JARVIS declared. "Well done!"

"Well done indeed, now come and eat," Phil said.

Steve grabbed one of the big soup plates and filled it with biscuits. "I love biscuits and gravy," he said. "We used to have it at home, and sometimes in the army, only we never had so much meat or eggs." He picked up a hard-boiled egg, rolled it under his palm to break the purple shell, and stripped the peel off in one piece. He popped it into the egg slicer, pushed down, then dumped the slices over his biscuits. He took a second egg and repeated the process.

"How'd you do that?" Bruce asked. He picked fitfully at the shell of his glittery yellow egg. "Mine's all stuck."

Steve took the egg from Bruce, cleaned it, and handed it back. Natka had no trouble cleaning her own eggs, and Tony was ignoring them. Clint held out his egg, one of the bluish-purple beet-dyed ones. Steve peeled that too.

Clint popped his egg in his mouth and ate it whole.

Tony giggled. "If you liked girls, or even boys, that'd make 'em look at you twice," he said.

"Nah," said Clint, "I just use it to win bets."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For asexual readers unfamiliar with the innuendo regarding Clint and the eggs: Some sexuals like to put other people's genitals in their mouth, and these body parts usually aren't very small. So putting things like bananas or eggs in one's mouth can be thought of in a sexual way, and is sometimes used for flirting. Whole eggs imply that one might suck in one or two testicles, or a fair bit of cock.


	6. There's a Project I Need to Work On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers finish Easter breakfast.

Meanwhile Tony had pried the top off the honeybear and started dumping honey on his biscuits. Phil snatched the bottle and set it back on the table. "You are _not_ eating biscuits with honey and nothing else," he said firmly. "Leave room for some gravy."

"I don't like gravy, that was my father's favorite breakfast," Tony said in a sullen tone. "I like honey."

Of course that just inspired Clint to try the same trick. "Clint! You're old enough to know better," Phil said, taking the honeybear away a second time.

Bruce was young enough to pour the honey straight into his mouth.

Steve finally put the cap back on the honeybear, washed it in the sink to remove all the sticky fingerprints, and put it back in the cabinet. "So nobody gets any more honey for breakfast because you little scamps can't behave with the bottle. Are you happy now?" he said.

Tony looked down at his plate and shook his head. Bruce stuck out his lower lip.

"Sorry," Clint muttered, not sounding very sorry at all.

"We will have strawberry jam instead of honey," Phil declared. "Everyone may have _one_ biscuit with jam, and I'll put it on." This worked considerably better. Really, he should have known not to leave the honeybear unattended on the table.

By this time Steve had piled half a dozen sliced eggs over as many biscuits and doused the small mountain of food with about a cup of sausage gravy. Phil was gratified to see him eat enough without prompting.

"I still don't like gravy," Tony grumbled.

"Well, if you'd asked nicely then I would have made you something else," Phil said. "How about a compromise? I didn't put all the sausage into the gravy because it was about to overflow the electric skillet."

"Okay," Tony said. Phil didn't say anything when Tony ate the sausage crumbles with his hands instead of a fork.

After breakfast, Steve and Natka helped Phil clean up. "Thank you for this," she said to Phil. "It's been lovely." A small chorus of thanks sounded from the other Avengers.

"You're welcome," Phil said. "I enjoyed it too."

"Will you unlock my workshop now?" Tony asked. "I want to go change clothes. There's a project I need to work on."

"Aw, come on, Tony, this is an extra vacation day," Clint whined. "Don't spend it working! We just got new video games. You gotta come help us break them in."

"Yeah, no, this won't wait," Tony said. He pushed his chair away from the table. "Sorry."

"JARVIS unlocked the rest of the tower as soon as you completed the mission," Phil assured him. Clint scowled as Tony left the kitchen.

An hour later, Tony's voice floated through the tower. "Would everyone please assemble in the common room?" he said. "I've got something to show you."

Phil was in Clint's room, trying to convince him that Tony wasn't mad at him. It was just Tony's nature to _make_ things, and he couldn't hold it back for very long.

What Tony had made this time made Phil catch his breath in amazement.

There on the common room wall hung a glittering case with the писанки in two neat rows. Steve's sat on the top shelf and Natka's sat on the bottom shelf, each with an engraved tag underneath indicating the artist and recipient. The case itself consisted of some sleek, silvery metal with panes and shelves of clear glass. Inside it the eggs rested in elegant yet secure stands, their colors vivid under soft white light from hidden fixtures.

"Wow, Tony, that's beautiful," Bruce said. "Um ... is it safe, though?"

"Yeah, we get kinda wild in this room sometimes. I'd hate for anything to happen to them," Clint said.

Tony whacked the front of the case with the side of his fist. Everyone jumped and protested. The case and the eggs did not so much as quiver. 

"Relax, I made this thing with bulletproof glass and some scraps from an old Iron Man suit that was too wrecked to repair," Tony said. "The individual stands are based on what a friend of mine uses for his Fabergé egg collection. The whole case has vibration-reducing gear in the framework." Tony drummed his fingers against the glass. "This case is about as safe as anything can be here in the tower."

Phil looked at Steve and Natka. They were smiling, drifting a little closer to the case. They had really gone all out making those tiny works of art. The symbolism came from traditional and contemporary references gathered by JARVIS.

On the left sat the only two mismatched eggs. The one Steve made for Natka was primarily black, representing constancy and the darkest time before dawn, accented with the white of morning light and the red of action. Fine crosshatching covered most of the surface, the sieve symbolizing the separation of good from evil. Bounded by the narrow lines were a snake for protection from catastrophe and a spider for patience and artistry. The one Natka made for Steve was red, white, and blue with the blue standing for truth. The designs included a bird for rebirth, a star for growth and fortune, and a background of many spirals for the mystery of life and death.

Then came the paired eggs, one by Steve and one by Natka for each of the other team members. Steve's egg for Clint was white with barely-there sky blue representing the open air. A hawk symbolized driving away evil. Natka's egg for Clint was primarily purple for trust and patience. She had twined the entire surface in the grapes and green vines of brotherhood.

Steve's egg for Tony was a golden yellow that stood for reward and recognition. He wrapped it in wavy bands indicating wealth. Natka's egg for Tony was vivid red and decorated with the saw blades of fire and industry. Both of them had used a background of diamonds to signify knowledge. 

Steve's egg for Bruce was the green of hope and broken bondage. He had arranged a pattern of smaller diamonds forming larger diamonds. Natka's egg for Bruce was the purple of trust and faith. She had enclosed the entire egg in eternity bands with the ancient meander pattern. According to legend, any malicious force entering the home would feel drawn to the egg, then become trapped in the wandering line that had no beginning or end, never to escape. 

Both of Phil's eggs contained every color of dye. Four or more colors evoked family happiness, peace, and love. Both eggs also shared a background of intricate curls for defense and protection. Steve had added combs to his, which spoke of putting things in order. Natka had chosen the butterflies of a carefree childhood for hers. 

"They really look great," Clint said. "Steve, Natka, you guys are amazing. Tony, the case is terrific. I'm sorry I thought you just didn't want to be around us. I didn't know you were making something awesome."

"Yeah, well, I had some things to think about too." Tony shuffled from one foot to the other, and then asked hesitantly, "Steve? What did your friend Howard do with the dummy grenades that he painted?"

Steve chuckled. "He hid them all over camp. One in the mess hall, one in the officers' latrine, and so forth. Whenever somebody touched one, it shot out a cloud of colored smoke," he said. Then he shook his head. "Howard got yelled at by the brass for it, but everyone else thought it was a great gag. Something to smile at, when there just wasn't much of that on offer, over there."

Tony smiled, just a little, and edged closer to Steve. He looked tiny against Steve's bulk. "Thanks for telling me," Tony said. Steve wrapped an arm around him and pulled him into a hug. 

The other Avengers shuffled closer, reaching out to each other as they clustered around the case. Murmurs of "Happy Easter" went through the group.

Phil looked at the display. The beautiful, fragile eggshells nestled inside a case built with some of the strongest materials mankind had learned to fashion. They might seem to be hollow, but they were not: they were filled with time, with care, with love. They stood together, and nothing could budge them.

"Yes," Phil said, hugging everyone close. "Happy Easter indeed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can read about [Fabergé eggs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faberg%C3%A9_egg) online.
> 
> The interpretations for the eggs that Steve and Natka decorated for everyone came primarily from "[Symbols and Colors Used on Pysanky](http://www.learnpysanky.com/symbols.html)" and "[Symbolism of Pysanky](http://eggs-files.tripod.com/pysanky_4.html)."
> 
> Thanks to all the folks who have commented! Feedback is candy. Remember, the sequels to this story are linked in the [series page](http://archiveofourown.org/series/42722) if you want more.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Cover art for "Eggshells"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12607928) by [Lehorin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lehorin/pseuds/Lehorin)




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